The present invention relates generally to an inventory management system and method and, more particularly, to a cloud-based validation, security and tracking system for a controlled item and method thereof.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Various systems and methods have been employed to assist in the inventory management of a controlled item(s), such as drugs or medical supplies to be dispensed to patients of the medical facility, ammunition and military grade weapons to be dispensed to law enforcement agents, military personnel, and the likes. Such systems have a common goal of helping to maintain accurate records while attempting to reduce the burden of managing all of the information associated with the stocking and distribution of such control items. Such systems have been useful when applied in certain situations, but have been lacking in other areas.
For example, in efforts to affect control over grow operations and dispensaries of cannabis and cannabis based products, some states like Colorado impose strict rules requiring the tracking of individual cannabis plants each with a unique radio frequency identification (RFID) tags as well as the weighing and cataloging of all plant material, including freshly harvested (wet) cannabis. Law enforcement officers have been using such RFID systems to identify grow operations where there is an unusually high loss of marijuana between the growing, harvesting and processing steps. This is part of an effort to ensure that the cannabis industry is following guidelines set out by federal prosecutors to keep cannabis and cannabis based products from being diverted to the black market run by criminals and international drug cartels.
However, as such, RFID systems used in the cannabis industry to date have been basically similar to the systems employed in big-box stores, like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. This methodology has been shown to be cumbersome, not cost efficient, and not particularly effective in accurately tracking the inventory of such controlled items. For example, reports of audit investigations, comparing the amount of cannabis a store has actually on hand with that read by the RFID system, in multiple cases found stores with far more cannabis than they were disclosing. By withholding plants from the tracking system, store owners can avoid paying taxes on those sales, which could also take place on the black market.
Accordingly, a need exists for an inventory management system for a controlled item that improves workflow validation, security, and tracking as well as cost efficiency to manage controlled items of any size volume or staffing level.